- Another one bites the dust! There was a time when I madly listed for the Prada Phone by LG. It was like iPhone before iPhone. LG recently announced that it was leaving the phone business for good. Such a shame. LG never “capitalized on the household name recognition” and “was beset by an inferiority complex to crosstown rival Samsung,” writes Roger Cheng, in this close examination of what went wrong at LG. This great read — and it highlights that to win, you need to overcome self-doubt. Research firm TrendForce data shows that LG made 30.6 million smartphones in 2020 – a 2.4% market share that equals ninth place in the global ranking of smartphone brands based on 2020 production volume.
- Abandoned Disasters: The unseen climate disaster in plain sight — that is how I would describe the growing problem of abandoned oil and gas wells. The Girst has conducted a wide-ranging investigation and found that, led by Texas and New Mexico, these abandoned wells are accelerating the release of dangerous methane into the environment, in addition to polluting the groundwater. This story is so horrifying, and it made me angry. The short-sighted nature of our society and our agencies is infuriating. Have a read, and decide for yourself.
- What great branding by pasta-maker Barilla. Listen to Spotify and make perfect pasta. Moody day linguine is my favorite.
- What compels us to jot down poetry and poetic thoughts in our Notes app, of all places? I didn’t know, so I read this article.
- I was on Stacey Higginbotham’s podcast and we talked about ARM’s new chip architecture and future version of Bluetooth, apart from the usual banter between two former colleagues. ARM, by the way, is the company whose IP is powering most of the smartphones on the planet, amongst other things.
- The unexpected history and miraculous success of vaccines is a great read from Matt Ridley, one of my favorite writers. It is also a great reminder that humans have always resisted vaccination, and through history, have greeted them with scorn and suspicion.
- Why such a big fuss about the Moun-g-2 particle experiment. If you are a science-savvy and physics enthusiast, a good explainer from Symmetry magazine.
- National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence has a new report. 756 pages. It is worth reading, especially if you think the future and American influence are tied to technology.
- “I believe in open source, and if WordPress isn’t a good fit for you, there are other great open source communities. We also have a great relationship with some of our proprietary competitors, and I have huge respect for the teams at Shopify and Squarespace, and even though we compete, I’ve always seen them operate with integrity, and I’d recommend them without hesitation.” Matt Mullenweg, CEO Automattic. Wix and Their Dirty Tricks – Matt Mullenweg
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The kinds of programs that we have now, AI algorithms, don’t have the ability to replace a human. A human is still going to be the best at being able to generate creative, interesting stories and to be able to compose a unique song.” Dr. Jane Wang, senior research scientist, DeepMind . [via LDV Capital]